


Stating the Obvious

by Coriander_Dreams



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Canon Queer Character, Canon Queer Character of Color, F/F, but it's maybe still important to this whole thing nonetheless, by which I mean this entire thing is an exploration of power dynamics, fun and games with power dynamics, interracial relationship(s), scene continuation from 202, the canon child sexual abuse for both characters is not mentioned, with some spoilers for all of season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-25
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-10-23 19:09:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10725411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coriander_Dreams/pseuds/Coriander_Dreams
Summary: "Do you think I want to be safe from you?"Scene continuation for the exchange between Annalise and Bonnie in the former's office in 202, basically a shameless excuse for me to fiddle with their power dynamicsAlso heads up the "mature" rating is to be on the safe side for a bit of dirty talk. I myself am disappointed at the lack of physical contact in this fic





	Stating the Obvious

**Author's Note:**

> why hello there my fine friends. I just got devoured by this show, and started writing this after the first season finale. As soon as I started binging the second, though, the interactions between Bonnie and Annalise were too similar to what I was already writing for this NOT to become a scene continuation fic :P 
> 
> I really don't know, this is not what I meant to write, exactly, I mean these fuckers don't even kiss, but the thing is I always feel when I sub like I have all the control, in a way, and that's part of why it's very calming for me. So I wanted to inject that dynamic a little into this relationship and....this is what happened. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think :)

            Annalise was always the nurturing type. Or not quite, not at all, she's a little too ruthless for that.

            And paradoxically she's just ruthless enough.

            She makes people _safe_ , fixes things for them, holds those dear to her tight enough to hear the rhythm of their heartbeat until she's sure they're all right.

            This is especially true of those that remind her of herself. Like Wes, so open and trusting and hopeful and at the same time broken. Like Rebecca, in so far over her head and covering it with three-quarter-truths and acerbic humor, and, the more she gets to know her, the more she's sure Rebecca was more than a little in love with Lila, before this all happened and honestly, honestly that reminds her of herself too. Reminds her of when she was younger and the only way she could talk about the dizzying, maddening rush she felt was to talk around it, to not speak of it at all.

 

            Bonnie feels things too much. Annalise has always known this. It's what drew her to Bonnie in the first place. She wonders sometimes if she's ruined her. If Bonnie covers herself in a layer of ice trying to emulate her, or trying to make her proud. If that's a bad thing.

            But she needs her too much to let her go, however much she may be afraid of ruination. Needs her to wear her heart on her sleeve as the contrast to her impeccable poker face, needs her careful attention to _every_ detail, the emotional as much as the logical, the factual, the provable. She is not as good a lawyer without Bonnie.

            Once, she would have said she was not as good a person.

            Now, after everything they've been through, everything they've _done_ , she's not so sure. Because she knows what she is to Bonnie. She can't put a word to it, but she knows. And she pretends not to.

 

            It's not that Bonnie owes her, it's not that Bonnie thinks she's the brightest person she's ever been in a room with. Both of these things are true but they are not the truest. They don't explain or justify why Bonnie would, beyond a shadow of a doubt, beyond reason, beyond what words can describe, do _absolutely anything_ for Annalise.

 

            Which is how we get to:

            "You say you want me to be like you but you don't, you want me like this" (Bonnie's right)

            "I didn't save you. You all need to be saved from me." (Annalise is...probably right)

           

            And this is how Bonnie knows, even with her back to Annalise, even halfway out the room in easily the third instance of Annalise trying to rip her to shreds today when _all she's ever done is try to help this fucked up situation they all somehow got in_ that Annalise is broken, in this moment, that everything that's happened has been just too much.

            "Is that what you think I want?" Bonnie is quiet as usual, understated. She hasn't yet turned around.

            "What?" Annalise is genuinely confused and covering it with anger--Bonnie has been here too long not to be able to tell. She isn't sure why Annalise tries.

            "Do you think I want to be _safe_ from you?" She turns now, stalking over to where Annalise sits, looming over her for a rare second, before softening her voice, slowly lowering herself to her knees in an echo of how she had that fateful night. "I have never wanted to be safe from you."

            Annalise swallows hard, just as she had then, her fingers twitching in her lap, almost reaching out but stopping, fluttering on the point of indecision.

            "You think I want to venerate Sam somehow. I have _never_ wanted that. I have _never_ wanted him. That is _not_ what this is about." She leans her head on Annalise's knee, looking up at her from the side.

            "What is this about then?" Annalise's voice is quiet now too, shaky.

            "You," Bonnie states the obvious--what has been so obvious for so long. To both of them, really. "I will do what needs to be done to protect you, I will do it and justify it however I need and you will justify what you've done however you need as long as you are _here_."

            "Here?"

            " _With me_. I don't want to be safe from you Annalise. I want to be _with you._ " And maybe, Annalise tells herself, maybe it's just bad timing that she'd just slept with Eve again, just remembered what it's like to be with women. Maybe it's just bad timing that after everything that's happened this year, with Nate and Sam, she's forgotten entirely what it's like to be with someone she trusts.

            Or maybe this was inevitable all along.

            "Bonnie," she begins, "I don't want, I don't want...."

            "You won't hurt me," Bonnie anticipates what she's failing to say, "Or you will, actually, I hope you will. But you won't...I _want this_ , Annalise. You won't do anything to me I don't want."

            "How can you know?" She's cracking, her voice, her body, she's about to come apart at the seams.

            "Because I want you to do _everything_ to me. I want you to order me around and hit me and take me and claim me because I'm _yours_. I want to hurt you if you want that, I want to hold you and make you feel good and kiss my way down your body because I'm _yours._ Because I trust that no matter what we do or don't do I'd just have to say the word and you would be on knees before me. I am here because I _want to be_ " and there it is, Bonnie has taken her apart.

            "Say it," It's barely a whisper but it's one they both hear. Bonnie stands, shakily, brushes her hands along the sides of Annalise's face as her forehead comes to rest against her stomach. Everything about Bonnie is light. Her face, her clothes, her footsteps--but Annalise knows what a mistake it is to conflate delicacy with weakness. How many times has she said to beware the quiet ones? How much has she forgotten to take her own advice?

            Bonnie's hands come to rest against her shoulders, pressing just slightly as she says, gentle as ever, "Get down."

            And Annalise?

            Annalise just does that, kneeling before her, make-up runny and clothes askew and never as willing to give of herself as she is now.

            "You are _mine_." Bonnie hisses, tilting Annalise's chin up to look in her eyes as she responds.

            " _Yes_ "


End file.
